How The Drenched Came To Be: Part Two

Dread continued to stare at Luck, another person who received
a curse disguised as a blessing. They were all innocent, but it made no difference;
they were still all going to be banished.

Luck, again, seemed to reply to Dread's thoughts.
"It's sad, isn't it, when we're blessed and everybody thinks that it's so amazing.
And then we grow up and they gradually begin to resent us, and they claim that
we think we're better than them when we never even had a choice. They use us
most of the time, then throw us away like an old rag and claim that we've fulfilled
our purpose."

Fortune stared out of her window. Everything
was going wrong. But something strange was happening to her. She began seeing
herself, her sister, and now someone else with them in their banishment. And
something that worried her even more, she was having a bad vision despite the
fact that she was blessed with good visions. For a split second she wondered
if now there were no more good visions to see, but she quickly dismissed it
as a random and impossible thought.

"There's something else I should tell you, Dread.
My name isn't Luck. I don't actually know what it is. You see, whenever creatures
are blessed it's customary to name them as well. And as it turned out, I was
never named. After then nobody ever wanted to name me, so when I'm pretending
to be happy I say that my name is luck. When I'm sad, I say that my name is
Sorrow. And when I feel like my knowledge will destroy me, I say that my name
is Torment. I so badly wish that I knew what my name was, but I have none."

"That's so sad, Luck… I'm sorry. What do you
want me to call you?"

"I suppose I like the name Luck. It almost makes
me feel like I have hope, though I have none."

Dread muttered to herself, "I wonder what my
sister is doing right now…"

Luck asked Dread, "Do you mean Fortune?"

"Yes, but how do you kn…" Dread stopped short.
"Sorry, never mind. I forgot that you were blessed with knowledge. What's it
like for you though? I only see things to come, and I see people, I don't know
it, I see it."

"It's probably pretty much the same, except
that I don't see anything. I just know that something has happened or will happen.
I guess that's another difference. You see only what will happen or what is
happening, I see what has happened, what is happening, and what will happen.
For example, right now your sister is having her first bad visions and she's
wondering who I am and why I'll be banished with you."

"Are you serious? Why?"

Luck just stared at Dread with her mouth wide
open and she replied quietly, "I don't know."

Fortune didn't know what was happening. She
was only supposed to have good visions, but another person being banished with
them was hardly good by any standards, and certainly not by hers.

As Fortune swam off, she didn't know where she
was going, but she just needed to get away and to try to figure out what was
going on and what was happening to her and her sister and her sister's new friend.

"So this is the first time you haven't known
something?"

"Well, almost the first time. This has happened
once before."

"What was it?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Why not?"

"Just because I don't, ok?"

"Fine then, have it your way. Anyway, let's
go see Fortune, she's probably as confused as I am right now."

Luck sighed, "Dread, I don't like talking about
it because thinking about it makes me ask more questions that I don't actually
want to know the answer to."

Dread spoke her thoughts before she could stop
herself. "It involves Maraqua, doesn't it? Us and King Kelpbeard, and everybody;
it's all of us, isn't it?"

Luck's eyes turned into huge pools of sorrow
and pain as she opened up to the one person she knew who could understand her
and who would listen to her without any bad intentions for her sad tale. "You
see, when I was younger, everybody wanted to know so many things. They would
always ask what the best and cheapest meal was, who would they meet, would they
have a good day, would they have a nice house, the list goes on and on. Nobody
cared that it exhausted me to answer their questions day after day. They only
cared that I answered them, since they knew that I would know. Then the fateful
day arrived. I was summoned by King Kelpbeard. He had heard rumors of a subject
who could answer any question that was asked of her. And King Kelpbeard asked
me many things that I answered, but then he asked me another question."

Dread took Luck's pause as a sign that she was
approaching the hard part. "It's okay Luck, I don't have to know."

Luck replied, "You don't have to know, but I
have to tell someone. I've been keeping it inside of me for so long I feel as
if I could explode. To most people not knowing something is no big deal. But
to me, it's a frightening thing. I guess even blessings have their limits."
Luck tried to laugh, but couldn't so she continued her story. "Like I said,
I had been summoned by the King and he was asking me various questions. Then
the fateful moment came when he asked me what the worst thing that would ever
happen to Maraqua would be. I knew tiny bits, I knew of land creatures and of
King Kelpbeard and of two twins who were blessed just as you and your sister
were. But when King Kelpbeard asked me more questions, I didn't know the answer.
He took it as a sign of either doom or my refusal to tell him the truth and
he banished me from his castle unless he specifically called for me. So I often
come around the castle and stare up at the beautiful sight that I shall never
again or be allowed to enter because I was blessed and because my blessing,
apparently, had a few limitations."

"I'm so sorry Luck, you've had to deal with
banishment before; don't take part in it again."

"But it's my future and my duty, Dread. I can't
allow you to be alone with nobody but your sister. I'm not saying anything against
Fortune, but I honestly want to join you."

Dread stared up at the castle. "It seems we
have little choice anymore; I feel like such a puppet."

Luck sniffed. "I make most people feel that
way."

Dread dried a tear that was falling down Luck's
face. "Don't ever feel bad because you were blessed. Feel bad because you can
do nothing to change Maraqua's likely eventual fall."

Luck replied, "Yes, you're right. Now, let's
go join Fortune."

Dread asked her, "You know where she is?"

"Yes, she's right around at the other side of
the castle."

Fortune swam up to the castle and gazed at the
undersea glory. It was am amazing array of colors. It had all of Fortune's favorites,
for it had blues and greens and every other color that Fortune, and all Maraquans
for that matter, adored. When she turned around she saw her sister and someone
else. She swam up to them quickly.

"Dread, what are you doing here? And who's your
friend?"

"I was speaking with King Kelpbeard when I ran
into Luck."

Fortune looked at Luck, she seemed vaguely familiar,
and then it hit her. "Luck, you're going to be banished with us, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am."

"Well, it's nice to meet you."

"And you too. Well, what should we do now?"

Dread asked, "What else is there to do except
to let our futures be determined by our visions and knowledge?"

Luck rose her voice slightly in anger and annoyance,
"I hate feeling like I have no say in things! I mean, I know that we can use
what we have to help, but whenever we've tried to help others it's ended in
disaster. I was banished from the castle, and together we'll be banished again,
but his time from Maraqua."

Both Dread and Fortune knew that what Luck had
said was true, despite whatever blessing she had received. Fortune was unable
to stop herself from asking, "How is it that we turn evil though? I don't really
want to be evil, but if it happens…"

"When King Kelpbeard banishes us we will turn
evil. Our rage will consume us and there's a twist to blessings. Our mind controls
them. Sure we're blessed with some things, but it's our mind that controls the
specifics. I didn't know the answer when your sister asked me something, but
I know it now. You had your first bad vision because your mind was full of sorrow
and anguish. That controlled what you saw therefore you saw something that wasn't
good at all. I wish that I could help you, but I know that all I can do is join
and support both of you."